Record second quarter for Cineplex

On Friday, that was evident by record second quarter results released by movie theatre giant Cineplex.

For the quarter ending June 30, total revenue of $409.1 million was up 12.4 per cent from a year ago.

The company reported that attendance of 17.3 million during the quarter was a five per cent hike from last year. Box office revenue per patron of $10.82 rose by 4.4 per cent and concession revenue per patron of $6.59 climbed by 9.3 per cent.

Ellis Jacob, president and CEO of Cineplex, said box office revenue increased 9.7 per cent to $187.2 million, “due to a five per cent increase in attendance as a result of the quarter’s strong film product” and theatre food service revenue increased 14.6 per cent to a record $114 million during the quarter.

Both were all-time quarterly records.

“Key accomplishments during the quarter included the opening of the fifth location of The Rec Room in London, Ont., and the opening of a new theatre, Cineplex Cinemas East Hills in Calgary. Additionally, Player One Amusement Group announced an exclusive agreement with Cinemark to install, operate and service amusement gaming equipment in over 270 Cinemark locations across the U.S.,” he said.

“In addition to growing our revenue sources, we continue to focus on optimizing our cost structure across our ecosystem, having implemented a cost reduction program during the second quarter with the expectation of realizing annualized cost savings of $25 million by the end of the year. Subsequent to the quarter-end, we announced an agreement with The VOID to expand our position in the growing virtual reality market. It was a strong quarter in our exhibition segment and we continued to execute our diversification plan in our amusement and leisure and digital place-based media segments.”

Cineplex sees about 70 million customers annually through its circuit of 165 theatres across the country.

Respected business writer Mario Toneguzzi is a veteran Calgary-based journalist who worked for 35 years for the Calgary Herald in various capacities, including 12 years as a senior business writer.